Good dives on the Pinnacles and inside the inner wash rock of Cypress Point September 8, 2022

Greg Hoberg and I took his boat down to just inside Carmel Bay to dive the Pinnacles. We've been very pleased to see how much the kelp has recovered, its maybe 70% of normal now. It's still dominated by Bull Kelp, unlike normal, but Giant Kelp is finally expanding rapidly there, too. We had 35 ft average visibility. 52 degrees depths from 65 ft to 25 ft. Below are some photos from the dive, to see more, go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/maSoeU1SGiygTfAY7

Above: Olive Rockfish

Above: Treefish Below: Juvenile Black and Yellow Rockfish with anemone and bright white empty mussel shell, no doubt eated by a hungry sea star

Below: Large Ochre Sea Star with my hand for scale. He'd no doubt been eating lots of the mussels whose numbers exploded (along with, unfortunately, sea urchins) after the sea star wasting plague wiped out most of the sea stars 8 years ago.

Above: Hurray! The Pinnacles have a healthy kelp forest again!

Below: Bright white empty mussel shells from recently devoured mussels with a big sea star eating its next one!

Above: Happiness is making a safety stop right under Greg's boat in kelp! Our second dive was off the north side of the inner wash rocks on the north side of Cypress Point (there's a wreck nearby we've dived a couple times but the waves were too rough to want to dive on it). Visibility averaged 20 ft. Lots of Palm Kelp on the bottom, sea urchins only in cracks, where they should be. Below are some photos from this dive, to see more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qiVqgSZofQSVNKRC7

Below: We went quite a ways up a long narrow ravine until it reached the wash rock with its breaking waves.

Above: Large Green Anemone. These are only found in water that is usually turbulent so we only see them on calm days.

Above: We had a quick visit by a curious but cautious sea lion.

Above: The only good sized Ling Cod I've seen in several months.